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Ricks POV:

In the morning, I slide out of the bed before either of the kids. After leading Rhodey to the woods edge so he can do his business, he heads back to the tent to wait until the kids wake up, and I head on over to Morgan's tent. The flap is open, so I peak my head in, and Morgan is lacing up his work boots, while Duane is sprawled across the air mattress, drool spilling down his chin.

He grabs the walkie and we both head over to the SUV to try and get in contact with Indy. It takes about 10 minutes of us consistently calling for her to respond, and when she does, she sounds like shit.

"Stop. Yelling." She rasps. "Fuck me, I think I'm dying. Everything hurts." Morgan and I share a concerned look at that.

"Listen Indy, we won't keep you for long, we just wanted to check in. we'll be heading out very soon. Were trying to give merles brother an opportunity to show up but if he doesn't soon, were coming without him. How are you holding up?" I ask.

"Fantastic," she responds. "Feels like a marching band is having practice inside my skull and the sun is trying to roast my corneas through my eyelids, but other then that? Peachy keen jellybean."

Her sarcastic answer loosens a tiny bit of worry in my chest, but the way she's nearly out of breath just finishing her sentence has me wanting to leave immediately.

"But really," she continues huffing, "Its quiet, so I think a lot of the Biters cleared out, and the protections and the chain are holding up well. Merle is still knocked out and I'm for sure not going anywhere. We'll be good until you guys get here."

Around us, the camp is starting to pick up, as people are getting up and starting their day. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lori coming out of her tent and waddling towards Morgan and me.

"Alright Indy, we'll let you rest. I'll radio in and let you know when they leave, and Rick'll have his walkie on him in case you need him while he's on the way. I'm gonna send some potions for you that'll get you on your feet until I can check you out properly, alright? See you soon." Morgan says.

"Roger roger," She signs off.

Morgan rolls his eyes at me but leaves to go get the potions ready for Indy. When I turn around, Lori is standing off to the side, clearly waiting for my attention.

I take a slow breath in and out, then walk over.

"Lori," I tip my head in greeting.

"Good morning, Rick. Can we talk? We didn't really get any time alone yesterday."

"For sure. I think we have a lot to talk about."

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Lori leads me over to the picnic tables a little out of the way and I help her sit, then sit across from her. The air between us feels awkward and strained.

"I've missed you Rick, more then I even realized until I saw you get out of the SUV yesterday." She says with a sniffle, and I can see her eyes watering. "It's been so hard without you, and everything is so different now. You don't know how happy I am that you can be here for us again."

Lori reaches one hand across to grab mine, and her other goes to her belly, rubbing.

I giver her hand a squeeze but pull it back.

"Lori, from the time I opened my eyes in that hospital, my goal was getting back to you and Carl. Seeing you guys yesterday was a weight off my soul. I will always be here for you, but cards on the table, we both know that baby you're carrying isn't mine."

The color drains from her face and her jaw drops a little.

"Rick, of course its yours, don't joke like that."

"Lori-"

"No Rick," she cuts me off. "I don't know what you're trying to accuse me of, but I won't have it. This baby is yours, end of story." She says a touch of hysteria in her voice.

"Lori please." I sigh." I've known you since we were 14. First time I ever saw you I fell right in love. Tail over ass, there was no stopping it. And we had some amazing years together. But after Carl was born things started to go downhill and we both know it.

"My point is, I know you. For 16 years I've known you, and the panic and defensiveness in your voice right now are telling me the real story, so let's not do this."

"Do. What. Rick?" she grinds out.

"This," I motion between us. "The song and dance we do where you get mad, and I cave, and we go back to pretending everything is okay. Its not okay, and I don't want to pretend anymore. I can't. Especially not when I know that isn't my baby. I mean c'mon Lori, you look to be about 5 or 6 months along. We hadn't had sex for 3 months before I was shot and then I was comatose for 4 more months. And I'm certain now it slipped your mind but the vasectomy I had after Carl ringing any bells? That literally cannot be my baby."

Lori opens her mouth, but I cut her off.

"Look, I don't want to fight with you Lori. I'm upset that you waited until I was in a coma to sleep with someone else, but-" A look crosses her face at that.

"You didn't actually wait, did you? I can't believe this.

"We may not have been completely happy in this marriage Lori, but I never not once stepped out on you. The thought never even crossed my damn mind!"

Out of the corner of my eye I see Shane making his way over to us. The way his eyes are completely centered on Lori and only briefly flick to me is very telling.

"Everything okay over here? Lori?" Shane asks.

"Yeah man everything good over here. Lori and I were just clearing the air a little bit." I say standing up, putting my hand on Shane's shoulder.

"But listen man, I was hoping you could clear something up for me? How long have you been fucking my wife?"

Shane freezes under my hand, chuckling nervously and Lori goes ghostly white.

"Wh-what are you saying right now Rick. I would never do that-"

"Don't lie to me right now Shane, I swear to God." I cut him off, my anger rising. But it's Lori that answers.

"A year."

I take several steps back from them both and take a really good look at them. It crushes my heart to realize its like looking at a pair of strangers. I sigh rubbing my hand down my face, too emotionally checked out to really deal with this right now.

A solid 5 minutes pass in silence while I way my options. I could 1) get angry and make a big scene, 2) resolve to talk about this further later, after I've rescued Indy, or 3) walk away and be done with the situation and never speak of it again.

Option 3 sounds so very promising, but a man has his pride. I guess a compromise is in order. I take off my wedding ring and silently walk back to the table where Lori is still sitting at, and gently place it in front of her.

Quiet tears are streaming down her face, and I can hear her choking back sobs.

Then I turn towards Shane, and when we make eye contact, I cock back and punch that mother fucker in the face.

"That's for fucking my wife pal."

By now pretty much the whole camp is staring and I feel Shane's eyes on my retreating back like lasers, but I don't give a damn.

As I'm walking back to my tent, the flap opens and Rosie is toddling out, holding onto Rhodey's collar. She squeals when she sees me, letting go of Rhodey and bounding towards me. Her little smile is a balm to my troubled spirit.

I start jogging, meeting her halfway, scoop her up in my arms, and plaster her smiling face with kisses.

"Good morning little miss." I greet and listen intently to her babbling, but when she sticks her tiny fist in her mouth and starts chanting 'Mama', I know she's both hungry and missing Indy.

As I continue towards Morgan's tent to get a warm bottle from him, I see Carl coming out of my tent and know I need to have a conversation with him before heading out. So instead of getting the bottle from Morgan, I pass Rosie off to him, give Rhodey a good pat on the head and heard Carl towards the water for some privacy.

We walk for a while in silence. I'll never again take for granted being able to hold onto my boy, and I don't relish having to have this conversation with my 10-year-old.

Near to the water I find a large rock and Carl and I climb up.

"Listen buddy, there's some thing we gotta talk about."

Carl shuffles closer to my side, looking at my face and sighs. "Is this about mom and Uncle Shane?" he asks.

I try not to tense up at his question, but he can feel it anyway, being so close.

"What do you know about your mom and Shane?" I ask instead.

"A few times I've seen them kissing and stuff. Usually at night after they think I'm sleeping, Uncle Shane'll come into the tent and sometimes they just talk quietly but sometimes they kiss and there's some loud smacking sounds and mom and Shane sounds really out of breath when he leaves again." Carl explains, scrunching his nose in disgust.

"It was always kinda gross. And anytime I brought you up, Mom would say your looking down at us from a better place and we have to do what we have to, to carry on and try to be a happy family because that's what you would have wanted us to do. But I didn't like it.

"Sometimes it felt like Uncle Shane was trying to replace you. And nobody waned to talk about you anymore. It made me really sad sometimes, but Uncle Shane says men don't cry."

I gather Carl into my arms and whisper for him to let it all out. Listening to him sob his eyes out cut me to the core, but validating his feeling was more important to me.

When his sobs calmed to hiccups and ragged breathing, I pulled back a bit to see Carl's face and wipe his tears.

"I love you so much buddy. So So So much. From the time I opened my eyes at the hospital to now, you were always on my mind. There were times I cried thinking maybe id never see your beautiful face again, but I tried my best to never lose faith, and look where we are now. Together again.

"I know the world, and everything is so different but one think that will never ever change is my love for you. I'll always come find you Carl, do you understand?"

He nods his head, accepting my words.

"Now, about your mom and Uncle Shane. I love them both very much, but I can say I don't really like either of them much right now. Shane was dead wrong to say that men don't cry buddy. You are always allowed to show and express how your feelings. Everybody cries and that's okay. I do it and I've seen Shane do it too. It doesn't make you weak to show emotions Carl, and I want you to promise me that if you ever feel like your struggling, you come to me. I'll always have time for you, no matter what."

"But what if your really busy or something?" he asks.

"I'll never be too busy for you Carl, I promise. Okay?"

He nods again.

"Now onto some more complicated stuff. I don't even know how to explain this to you properly.

"Your Mom and I are, I guess divorced, is the best way to put it. Normally wed have to do a bunch of stuff in order for it to happen, but things are very different now. This isn't to say I love your mom any less, but I'm not in love with her if that makes sense."

"Like you don't want to kiss her and stuff anymore?"

"It's a little more complicated than that Buddy but basically yeah. Your mom is very important to me because I've known her for years and years. I loved her very deeply at one point, and she gave me you." I say kissing his head.

"Does that mean Mom's gonna be married to Uncle Shane now? And what about the baby?"

"That's up to your mom and Shane buddy. I don't really know what they're gonna do. But I think Uncle Shane loves your mom like I used to. The baby is actually his, so they'll be related to you but not me. Technically your half sibling but that doesn't really matter.

"I know all of this may be a bit overwhelming for you, but I want you to know that just because your mom and I aren't together anymore, doesn't mean we love you any less. Do you have any questions for me right now?" I ask.

"No, I don't think so. But if I have questions later, can I ask them?"

"Of course, Carl. You can ask me or your mom. Even Shane if you want to, okay?"

He nods again, and we sit together for a few quiet moments, until Carl's rumbling tummy disrupts the moment. He lets out a wet laugh and I chuckle.

"Let's go get some breakfast Buddy. I can smell it from here and it smells good."

I slowly climb off the boulder we were perched on, but before I can reach back to help Carl down, I hear rustling from the trees near by.

I draw my gun and motion for Carl to get low on the boulder and stay quiet.

As I slowly creep towards the tree line, a man comes through carrying a small deer over one shoulder and a crossbow over the other.

He stops when he sees me, his body tense and weary. He's pretty dirty and completely drenched in sweat, his gaze piercing.

"You Darryl?" He nods but doesn't relax as I put my gun away.

"I'm Rick," I offer. "Carl's dad and Lori's, um ex-Husband?"

"You asking or tellin'?" Darryl gruffs out.

"Telling for sure. I mean it's a little complicated, but we aren't together anymore, but the worlds gone to shit so we can't exactly go through a traditional divorce…" I trail off my babbling explanation, kind of embarrassed. I can feel my cheeks getting a little hot.

"Um anyway, do you need any help with that?" I motion to the deer, but he shakes his head no.

After a brief awkward silence, Darryl starts off further into the camp, and Carl and I follow after I help him off the boulder.

Closer to the camp, I hear Darryl calling for Merle to "get off his sorry ass and help gut the deer," but when Merle doesn't answer he sticks his head into their tent.

I give Carl a hug and send him over to his mother to get some breakfast before moving towards Darryl's tent.

By now Darryl is standing in front of his tent, eyes roaming the gathering crowd. I see his eyes land on Andrea, Glenn, and T-Dog, hardening in anger.

"Where's ma' brother?"

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A/N: Hello folks! I woke up from a dream and wrote this in 45 minutes lol. Its kinda dialogue heavy and I'm still not that great at writing dialogue, but I'm working on it. I will say that this chapter didn't go as I had originally planned. The confrontation between Lori and Rick was to be much more explosive, but the scene from Euphoria was playing in my head when I wrote it, so I took inspiration from there. Also, sorry to leave it off kinda cliffhangery, but I felt this was a natural stopping point for the chapter. The next one will be in Indy's POV I think. Let me know what you think!